Category: Mad Science

Exergia – Ideas In Light and Energy

Kelvins Thunderstorm This page fills my head with ideas! Steam engines, electrostatic generators, bi-metallic motors… Mumm.. Well if your not the tinkering kind of person then you should be happy to know that everything at Exergia is for sale. Yep, in kit form or a finished unit. So explore the wonders of science today! Or at lest by mid noon of next week. 🙂

A bit from the site:

Sophisticated demonstration models of alternative energy technologies for universities, schools and interested individuals: Stirling Engines and steam engines, fuel cells, photovoltaic objects, toys and more! Discover extraordinary ideas in energy related devices: Educational devices inspired by old and new concepts to demonstrate the physical principles of conventional and alternative energy conversion." 

[via MAKE] 

Exergia

Remote Head-Mount Gyroscope-Controlled Camera Plane

 

Ooo, an R/C plane with a cockpit mounted micro video camera/transmitter that’s slaved to a gyro on the pilots head. Lots of discussion here. Video here, here, and here (best by far, lots of close passes with the ground).

Pretty much the idea is that the camera is sending a cockpit point of view back to the pilot where he views it on a set of head mounted goggles. To add a bit of extra zing to the equation the camera pans and tilts in response to the wearers head movements. You can see the fun that could be had with this, eh? Telepresence is amazing!

Some specs and build notes from the discussion group: (prices in Canadian I think)

My equipment is old. New equipment:
Gyro:$425
headset:$699
cam: $99
video tx/rx: around $150
antenna: 8dbi patch (optional) around $60
amateur radio license is req’d because you need to exceed 10mw of power.(it’s not hard to get and inexpensive in Canada)
and also it’s easy to plug, but not easy to get good video link without video dropout. It’s not easy to explain everything for me to someone who don’t have good electronic skill, for now it’s not for everyone.
The cam in this setup is glue on a servo and allow 45 deg of panning, the servo is plug in the rudder channel if not use or on slider etc. The servo can be modified to 180 deg easily by adding two resistor on pot. lead or buying a special circuit.

Remote Head-Mount Gyroscope-Controlled Camera Plane

The Differential Analyzer Explained

I was running around the Internet a few days ago and happened across this web page on Meccano hobbyists. It gives a great explanation of how an analog computer works.

The Differential Analyzer solves differential equations by integration. It makes use of one or more wheel and disc integrators (or Kelvin-disc integrators), interconnected by shafts in various ways to suit the problem equations. The process of integration can be illustrated by the simple example of the acceleration of a car. This can be represented for input by a curved graph showing speed varying with time. Say one wanted to find out the distance traveled in a certain time, say five minutes. The period of 5 minutes can be divided into much smaller intervals of say 10 seconds each, and assuming a constant speed over each interval from the graph, a distance traveled for each interval is calculated. The sum of the distances traveled in successive intervals is then the total distance traveled. The smaller the interval taken the more accurate will be the result. This is called Integration, and is the function performed by the integrator in a continuous manner.

 Best of all, with a bit of work these can be made out of Meccano (Erector) sets.

The Differential Analyser Explained

Halloween Way Back When

Halloween2000

Back in 2000, in another life when I lived in a house and had space, I set up a quick and dirty haunted laboratory for the local kids that came around to trick or treat. I had lots of black lights, party gels (the red lights), green glow sticks, dry ice, a Jacobs ladder (15KV at 30mA), and my home brew Tesla coil (output about 50KV). The kids loved it! I had a ball firing up the Tesla coil on the un suspecting kids. The spark gap on that monster is LOUD! I was the only house in my neighborhood that did any thing close to this and my attempt was pretty half assed. I’ll say this, once I get another home I’m pulling out the stops and doing this again.

Halloween 2000 on Flickr

The Landmaster

LandmasterAny science fiction fan worth their salt knows what your talking about when you mention the word "Landmaster". Arguable one of the most recognized vehicle ever created for a movie (Damnation Alley), this monster of a futuristic super survival truck was built to last and actually be practical. Meaning that it’s not just for show but it actually works. The Landmasters most noticeable feature is its odd tri-star wheel arrangement. Twelve wheels, all powered but only eight are in contact with the road, are set into four triangular mounts that will rotate over large obstacles. This gives the Landmaster the ability to go through deep mud, over big rocks, and pretty deep water. Turning this beast is done with an articulated joint in the middle of the vehicle. Did I mention that it floats? Yeah, it floats. It’s amazing that such detail was given to a prop in a move. It’s a tribute to the skill of Dean Jefferies, car master and artist. He built loads of cars that appeared in films in the 60’s and 70’s like the Monkees, Logan’s Run, Green Hornet, The Great Race, and even Diamonds are Forever. In fact, if your in the Hollywood area you might see the mighty Landmaster parked next to Jefferie’s auto shop on Cahuenga boulevard. This page has loads of info and photos on the beast. I hope to see it in another film soon, it’s got a few more miles left on it for sure.

Damnation Alley Landmaster Page

Robots Are Getting Smarter

s-bot swarm-bot Ok, the title is a little misleading, its not that the robots themselves are getting smarter it’s that the programming is getting better.

A "swarm" of simple-minded robots that teams up to move an object too heavy for them to manage individually has been demonstrated by robotics researchers.
The robots cannot communicate and must act only on what they can see around them. They follow simple rules to fulfil their task – mimicking the way insects work together in a swarm.

See? Nothing to worry about, no robot revolt is on the horizon. Well, the horizon is a long way off at any rate. But I will say, let me be the first to welcome our new robot masters. Let their reign be long and benevolent.

Robot swarm works together to shift heavy objects – tech – 17 October 2006 – New Scientist Tech

Swarm-bots website